In addition to voice telephony, the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) mobile radiocommunication system offers the possibility of sending or receiving, as applicable, short text messages of up to 160 characters in length. This message service is known as SMS (Short Message Service). For the next generation of mobile radiocommunication systems (2.5G and 3G), such as for example UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), a variant of a mobile messaging service is provided with multimedia capability, the so-called MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service). This MMS service is described in the technical specifications TS 22.140 Version 4.1.0, Release 4, and TS 23.140 Version 4.5.0, Release 4, from the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).
To delimit them more clearly from the SMS text messages, messages with multimedia content are referred to in what follows as multimedia messages, MMs. By contrast with SMS, there is no restriction to a purely text content for these. With MMs, it is possible to format texts in accordance with the individual's taste, and to embed audio and video content in a message. Accordingly, an MM can consist of several MM elements with different file types (e.g. audio or still image) or file formats (e.g. for a still image the Graphic Interchange Format GIF, or Joint Photographic Experts Group JPEG). Each MM has a header (MM header) and each MM element has in addition yet another header of its own (MM element header).
FIG. 1 shows a known MMS network architecture with two networks A and B, from the point of view of the 3GPP. MMS UA stands for a so-called MMS User Agent, i.e. a software program, for example on a mobile radio device or on a device connected to a mobile radio device (e.g. a laptop or similar), which realizes the functionalities for a MMS. Such functionalities can be, for example, generate, view or receive an MM, or send an MM, as applicable. MMS RS is a so-called MMS Relay/Server, i.e. a network element which is within the MMSE (Multimedia Messaging Service Environment) of the MMS service provider, i.e. service environment of the MMS service provider, MMSE SP, which makes the MMS functionality available to the MMS UAs. MM1 and MM4 are interfaces.
Mobile telecommunication systems, such as for example GSM or UTMS, use defined cards, so-called smart cards, which must be plugged into a mobile radio device in order to be able to make use of the services of a network operator with which one is registered. Also stored on this card are user settings and personal data (telephone book, SMS etc.). In the case of GSM, this card is called a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card. In the case of UMTS, a distinction is made between the physical UICC card (Universal Integrated Circuit Card) and its logical functionality, the USIM (UMTS Subscriber Identity Module).
SAT (SIM Application Toolkit) or USAT (USIM Application Toolkit), for GSM or UMTS respectively, is a toolkit which provides network operators with interfaces, so-called APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) for the purpose of programming applications. USIM Application Toolkits are, for example, described in the technical specification TS 31.111 Version 4.2.1, Release 4 from the 3GPP. With these APIs, network operators can implement their own applications on the SIM or UICC, as applicable, and with the help of USAT these can access the functionality of the mobile radio device—independently of the manufacturer of the mobile radio device and the manufacturer of the card. The SIM or the UICC card respectively is the physical basis for this toolkit, because it is provided by the network operators, and thus can be adapted as they wish.
Today, network operators already have the ability to transmit MMs together with advertising messages. However, a problem in doing so is that any transmission of advertising messages must take place over the air interface, so that system resources are consumed by the advertising.
In addition, it can happen that an MM element (e.g. a text file, video file or music file as advertising) is to be inserted into several MMs, all of which are sent to the same MMS UA. Such an MM element, which can be inserted repeatedly into MMs, is referred to below as a multimedia message multiple element. In a case like this, there is also the disadvantage that valuable system resources are used at the interface (which is part of the interface MM1 in FIG. 1), in order to communicate again the same data, i.e. the same MM element, to the same MMS UA.